REEKIE, Jocelyn (Margaret) 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born 1947, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; daughter of Robert M. (a lawyer) and Mary Elizabeth (a homemaker) Barr; married William David Reekie (a facilities manager), September 4, 1968; children: Stephanie Mary Reekie Christensen, Christopher David. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Regina, B.A. (English and psychology), 1969. Hobbies and other interests: Painting and drawing, crafts, hiking, canoeing and kayaking, horseback riding, animals of all kinds, swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—P.O. Box 267, Quathiaski Cove, British Columbia V0P 1N0, Canada. E-mail—jreekie@connected.bc.ca.

CAREER:

Writer, 1983—. Worked as a swim instructor and coach of synchronized and speed swimming in Regina, Saskatchewan, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada, 1965-83. CJDC-Radio, copywriter, 1971-72; Peace River Block News, staff journalist, beginning 1972. Worked as a substitute teacher in Dawson Creek, 1972-79; storyteller and creative writing teacher at schools, 1983—. Quadra Children's Center, board member, 1997-2000; Quadra Island Cultural Committee, member, 2001; Campbell River Arts Council, board member, 2003—.

MEMBER:

Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia, Federation of British Columbia Writers.

WRITINGS:

(Coeditor with Annette Yourk) Shorelines: Memoirs and Tales of the Discovery Islands, Kingfisher Publishing (Quathiaski Cove, British Columbia, Canada), 1995.

Tess (young-adult historical novel), Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Vancouver Sun, Campbell River Mirror, and Gulf Islands Gazette.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

The Savage Years, a sequel to Tess, and an untitled novel, both for Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada).

SIDELIGHTS:

Jocelyn Reekie told CA: "Born the fifth of nine children—seven of us girls—I became interested at a very early age in survival of the fittest. I believed that to survive childhood in my house I would need a titanium interior and a sponge-rubber exterior. I had neither, but got through anyway. Part of my modus operandi of survival was to become adept at creating fiction, often to the dismay of my parents.

"Beyond survival, there was Grandpa. My father's father suffered from crippling arthritis, but that didn't stop him from painting watercolors and from loving to be outdoors. From the time I was small, I accompanied him on Sunday sojourns to the various city parks, where he would show me different birds and flowers and tell me about statues, monuments, or the politicians whose pictures hung in the rotunda of the legislature. When we returned home he would sit in a big chair and pat the arm. 'Do you want to hear a story?,' he'd say. Of course I did. When I learned to read he started bringing books and asked me to read to him. Eventually I told him stories of my own.

"As a child I cherished my Sunday afternoons with Grandpa. As an adult I can feel and smell and taste and hear them still. They will be delicious all my life. And the love of story Grandpa nourished in me will go on and on."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review of Tess, p. 1207.

Canadian Materials, January, 2003, Lisa Doucet, review of Tess.

Resource Links, December, 2002, Victoria Pennell, review of Tess, p. 48.